Putty Squad PS4 review – Amiga power

The PlayStation 4’s strangest launch game is a revamp of an almost forgotten SNES game, but is it one that’s worth remembering now?

We’re fairly confident in saying that a re-release of a 19-year-old Amiga game that nobody ever played is by far the oddest game in the PlayStation 4 launch line-up. And given Knack it is up against some pretty stiff competition. There is no very good explanation for why Putty Squad has resurfaced, and no very good reason to care, but if you are interested in playing a second-rate 16-bit platformer on your brand new console then this is the game for you.

Putty Squad is the sequel to Putty, one of several British-made games from the early ’90s that tried to provide a homegrown alternative to the likes of Super Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog. Unlike Zool or James Pond the original Putty was a little more original in its plans for global domination, but it was still only a minor success.

Although it was also released on the SNES Putty and its sequel scream late era Amiga gaming, both visually and in terms of their awkward controls (remember, an Amiga joystick generally only had one button) and blatant disregard for design faux pas such as leaps of faith and instant deaths.

But by 1994, when Putty Squad was due to be released, it didn’t really matter as the Amiga 500 was all but dead and planned versions of the game for the Amiga 1200, Mega Drive, and PC were never released despite being completed. The SNES version did apparently make it out, but we can’t say we remember ever seeing it in shops.

Anyway, that’s the long, strange history of the games. They were originally developed by System 3, who are perhaps better known for the Last Ninja series, and against all the odds the company is still going. And so since they had Putty Squad sitting there ready to be ported we guess they must’ve thought new PlayStation 4 owners would be desperate for anything half decent to play at launch.

Putty Squad (PS4) – there’s no mistaking the game’s country of birth

And half decent does just about sum up Putty Squad. It is a 2D platformer, but at at time when most of its peers were trying to copy Sonic The Hedgehog not a fast-paced one. Instead the focus is on the main character’s unusually wide range of abilities, including growing a giant fist to punch enemies, blowing himself up like a balloon, absorbing food for health, and morphing through obstacles.

Things get even more Kirby-esque when you start absorbing power-ups to gain new abilities, such as time-delayed bombs and a tin of cat food to call in a giant cat called Dweezil (the villain from the original game) to help you out. On top of this collecting stars gradually increases the power and range of your standard attacks until you can wipe out almost the whole screen at once.

But while Putty certainly has a lot of tricks up his doughy sleeves the context in which they’re used never seems halfway near as interesting. Although the levels eschews the simple left-to-right structure of most platformers of the era they lack the sense of progression and tighter design that would’ve brought.

And although the amount of effort that’s gone into recreating the original graphics in HD form is laudable the end result is a garish mess that often makes it very difficult to spot either Putty or his enemies.

As a result the game, and your progress through it, feels random and far too reliant on luck rather than judgement. It also makes the optional challenge mode, where you’re tasked with completing levels under certain conditions – such as not collecting any food, seem especially tough and unfair.

There’s also the not inconsiderable problem that this is absurdly expensive for what at a few pounds would have been an interesting curio but at over £15 is simply an expensive reminder of how badly many retro games survive the passage of time. We’ve seen that often even with the most famous of games, and so it’s not too surprising to find that this much more obscure one is barely worth remembering at all.

In Short: It seems very unfair to suddenly thrust such a dated game back into the limelight, but it ready would’ve been better if Putty Squad had stayed in retirement.

Pros: Putty has an interesting variety of abilities and the surreal range of enemies all have an endearing early ’90s feel to them.

Cons: The level design is nowhere near as interesting as Putty’s abilities and is made worse by the overly busy art style and imprecise controls.